FALSE MEDICAL CLAIM

Hawera Star, Volume L, 4 March 1931, Page 6

FALSE MEDICAL CLAIM

INDECENT ASSAULT CHARGE EXAMINATION IN BEDROOM CONVICTION BY JURY. (By Telegraph--Press Association.) HAMILTON, March 3. Joseph Pollard Tattam, a middleaged man, pleaded not guilty in the Hamilton 'Supreme Court this afternoon to indecently assaulting a young woman at Matamata.

The Crown Prosecutor said on October of last year the accused rode into M'atamata and called on Mr Duxfiohl, junr., representing he had been asked to call by a friend of the Duxfields. He remained with the family for a time, representing he was a doctor, and persuaded a young lady at the house to allow herself to be examined. It was upon this that tlie charge of indecent assault was based. Asked w r hv she let the accused examine her alone in his bedroom, the girl in evidence said Tattam was always telling her something was wrong with her. The defence contended there was no case to go to the jury. His Honour said that if the. young woman gave consent to an examination on a false representation that the prisoner was a doctor, the consent was not one which the law t6ok cognisance of. He would not hold for a moment that a man who by reason of false representation that he was a doctor was able to handle the body of a woman was not guilty of an indecent act. Indecent assault had application to the touching without consent of a part of the body that was sacred to the individual. There w T as no doubt that the woman consented to an examination. She said the prisoner acted as a gentleman. The Crown held, however, that the prisoner obtained the right to examine the woman by false representation.

The jury returned a verdict of guilty.